“Father! Can we stop somewhere!?” shouted Yasuko as the wind took her words in another direction. The father stopped and turned towards them.
“We’ll stop at the next village. It isn’t that far from here.” He turned around and kept walking in the direction he was going.
---
After a few minutes, the rain calmed down and they arrived at a broken arc – the entrance to the village. The girls stopped and looked in horror. Imao could sense the tragedy that was before her. The village was completely devastated; there was not one single building standing. Corpses lay everywhere in the rubble and from the looks of them it was about a week or so when the disaster happened.
“Let’s keep going.” The father continued walking, not being fazed by what surrounded him. The young twins hung to Yasuko scared and upset.
“Can’t we go around?” Yasuko pleaded. Her father ignored her and continued walking through the remains of the village. The girls unwillingly followed, hoping to pass through the horrible place as soon as they could.
After a few minutes of walking through, Imai let go of Yasuko and became curious and started looking around. Imao still held on to Yasuko’s hand and avoided trying to sense her surroundings. As Imai kept looking around in the rubble, she noticed something move. She saw a small little child sitting down next to a wrecked house, hugging her knees, shaking from the ice cold rain hitting her skin and from the unknown tragic event that had occurred in the village. Imai looked at the kid shamefully. Imao also felt the presence of the child, as she felt her sister being so curious. She let go of Yasuko and stumbled towards that direction with help in mind but the little child noticed her and began to move away from her. The piercing emerald green eyes stared in fear at Imao, but because of her lack of vision she didn’t realize she was scaring the little kid.
But even so she managed to get close and wrapped a blanket she had worn outside of her coat around the weak, drenched, little body. The child’s wide fearful eyes slowly became sad and sorrowful. Imao could feel this change of emotion and she hugged the little kid.
“Take care of yourself,” and she got up from her knees and started to make her way through the destruction. As she walked away, she felt a pull on her hand.
“Don’t go.” A quiet, little voice said. “Please…”
Imao ‘looked’ in the direction of the child and felt compassion for the helpless kid. She just couldn’t leave the child in the cold rain all alone after losing everything the kid had …
“What’s your name?” Imao hoped she’d get a response.
“… Ruri.” Imao figured out that this child was a girl and felt disheartened at the news. She knew her father would not accept another female child in his family, especially one that wasn’t of blood relation.
“From now on... You’re name’s Kiyoshi. Father will take you in that way. You’ll be the brother we never had.” The girl looked down sadly and finally up at Imao and nodded. This was the only way she could survive. By living a lie… but it was worth it. Someone actually stopped and noticed her, cared enough to offer her a home - to start a new life. But all she really wanted… was to have a family again. Imao quickly paced herself towards the direction of her father, carefully making her way over and through debris from the building wreckage.
“Father!” she yelled out.
“…?” he stopped and looked towards where she was.
“Father, I found a little child in the wreckage. The child needs a home. May we please bring’em along with us?” she pleaded almost breathlessly.
“We don’t need another mouth to feed.” He turned away from and started walking again.
“But he’s all alone and has nothing left here.” She begged.
“He…?” he paused and gave a little interest.
“Yes. His name is Kiyoshi.” She smiled weakly, even as the cold rain starting falling as hard as hail.
“… Do as you wish. But you will be responsible for his care.” Her father then began walking away again. Imai followed behind but without first giving Imao an awkward look. Yasuko, on the other hand, smiled kindly at Imao and waited for her and the new member of their family. Imao gleamed with happiness,
“Thank you, father!” and then quickly went back to the little girl, almost tripping on some fallen rubble. She got to the little girl, and put her hand over Ruri’s shoulder.
“I promise I won’t let anything happen to you. I’ll protect you; you’ll be my little brother.” Imao smiled and took ‘Kiyoshi’ by the hand. Ruri smiled and felt a sense of belonging. She found her new home… but would never forget her old one.
